Switching from Fresha? Test your booking workflow first

Choose around the work you need to keep

Fresha’s published offer combines scheduling and client management with beauty and wellness features, direct booking links and marketplace discovery. Its pricing distinguishes bookable team members, new marketplace clients and optional services. It also lists quotes, invoices and a website add-on. Check the current local offer rather than assuming those capabilities are absent.

Solo brings your website, bookings, customers, quotes and invoices into one workspace. For a nail technician, beauty therapist or massage business, the useful question is whether that connected workflow covers your actual appointments and follow-up.

If packages, specialist forms, processing-time scheduling or marketplace acquisition are essential, ask for evidence of the exact capability before switching. This page does not claim that Solo replaces every Fresha feature.

Your switching checklist

1. 1. List what you depend on

   Write down your services, durations, staff assignments, availability, deposits, packages, forms, reminders and payment arrangements. Mark the features you cannot trade away. Ask Solo to demonstrate each essential requirement; do not infer support from a similar feature name.

2. 2. Separate your website from marketplace discovery

   Identify which bookings come from your own links and which come from marketplace discovery. A branded website gives customers a direct route to you, but it does not replace the audience or enquiries another platform may provide. Keep acquisition assumptions separate from subscription arithmetic.

3. 3. Check transfer scope before moving records

   Ask both providers what can be exported or imported, in which format, and with what permissions. Confirm appointments, client notes, balances, deposits, packages and consent records individually. This checklist does not promise a Fresha importer, automatic migration or transfer of reviews. Keep an accessible copy of records you are entitled to retain.

4. 4. Try a complete appointment with demonstration data

   Set up one service and provider availability, publish its booking route, and use a test customer. Check booking confirmation, a reschedule, cancellation and rebooking. If you need deposits, demonstrate your eligible setup and check how the remaining amount is handled. Confirm the experience on a phone as well as a desktop.

5. 5. Make one calendar authoritative at launch

   Choose a changeover time, reconcile existing appointments and decide which system owns availability. Confirm old links, customer messages and any outstanding payment obligations before changing them. Avoid accepting conflicting live bookings across two calendars.

6. 6. Keep a route back until the checks pass

   Record anything that still requires another tool. Agree how support will handle a failed booking or a missing record, and verify the workflow before cancelling an existing service. A seven-day trial is an evaluation window, not a guarantee that every migration can finish in seven days.

Compare your actual subscription and booking costs

Fresha lists free direct booking links and returning marketplace-client bookings, with a separate fee for new clients acquired through its marketplace. That distinction matters: do not apply a new-client fee to all bookings. Local tax, payment, message and add-on charges also need checking.

Solo’s UK subscription is £37 per month including VAT, with £0 per additional staff member. Use the staff-cost calculator with your own quote on the same tax basis. It compares subscriptions and the extras you enter; it does not estimate future marketplace demand or payment fees.

Review the website-to-booking workflow and customer and rebooking workflow before deciding.

Sources and next checks

This is VCMP’s own buyer guidance. Vendor descriptions were checked on the date above; this is not an independent review or a hands-on test of competing products. Confirm the current country, plan, tax and contract terms before purchasing.

• Fresha plans, online bookings and optional charges
• Solo subscription and trial